Such a suspension strut bearing is described in DE 10 2005 001 742 A1 in which the piston rod of the telescoping shock absorber of the suspension strut is connected via a ball and socket joint to the absorber bearing and the latter to the body of the vehicle. The ball and socket joint consists of a piston rod-side ball head which is supported in an absorber-side ball socket. The ball and socket joint makes it possible to avoid transverse forces which act on the piston rod of the shock absorber and which can occur as a result of pivoting motions of the wheel suspension elements, for example, of a suspension arm which is connected to the shock absorber.
The illustrated ball and socket joint, however, must be designed to have a relatively large volume for reasons of design, in order to be able to withstand especially dynamic loads in the direction of compression and tension. Moreover, the coupling and support of the spring plate which borders the ball and socket joint on the piston rod of the shock absorber can be a problem.
In this ball and socket joint solution, in the course of driving, support forces under a compressive load are delivered into the large projection surface of the ball head. When the ball and socket joint is loaded in tension, however, there is the risk of the ball head “popping” out of the socket. I.e., that the capacity of the ball and socket joint to accommodate the forces due to positive locking in the two directions of loading is different. Under tensile loading the magnitude of the force to be transmitted is very limited. Another disadvantage is that the ball pivot is not located at the center of mass of the surface of the rubber-metal bearing.
DE 10 2005 001 744 B3 discloses another body-side suspension strut bearing in which the piston rod of the shock absorber is coupled separately and with a low spring constant within the body-side absorber bearing. This solution is advantageous in terms of vibration engineering, but the above described transverse forces and squeezing on the suspension strut cannot be precluded.
The object of the invention is to propose a body-side suspension strut bearing of the generic type which is made especially durable and favorable in terms of production engineering and structure.